The boy who is an alien
This is an entry in Junior Dispatch’s alien short story contest. The effort earns the writer a free book from the York Emporium and a chance to win a $50 movie gift card and a $50 gift certificate from The York Emporium. Read the rules to the contest here, and get your story in by August 1.
By Tristan Schilling
Age 16, Glen Rock
This is the story of an alien disguised as a human boy to explore the wonders of planet Earth. However, this alien-human boy is sent to Earth as a baby to demonstrate what life is like on Earth from a baby to a mid-child, as his race of people, called teenagers, compared to other planets. As he grows older, he starts to discover a lot about his personality as an Earthling. This leads to a simple joke that slowly brings back memories of when he was a baby alien. Eventually, he remembers everything and tells his Earth family the whole truth that he’s not really a human boy. This gets the attention of the government, as they give chase to the boy and his Earth family as they move from place to place trying to protect themselves.
Chapter 1: Sent to Earth
Three-hundred-fifty thousand space miles from the planet Earth, a ship that was shaped like a crowbar was docked at a nearby asteroid. This strange looking ship was home to a faraway society of people called the Schalinklings. Aboard the ship, there was a group of blue and green giraffe-faced lizard people. These were the Schalinklings. They were from the planet, Schalinka, which was on the other side of the Milky Way galaxy.
There was something going on in the ship today that had everyone on the ship excited. At the front of the ship, looking out the front window towards Earth was a male and a female Schalinkling. On the right, the male was green and had blue scales running up his back all the way to the top of his head. He also had hooves on his feet.
On the left, the female was the opposite of the male. Instead of having blue scales, she had green scales. Also, she didn’t have hooves on her feet, like the male. She was carrying a baby Schalinking in her hand. She held it very close to her neck as the male Schalinkling held his hands behind his back. He turned his head to the female as he said, “I don’t know, Aurora,” he said, “do you really think he’ll be safe down there?”
The female looked over and said, “He’ll be fine, Fazebo. This planet looks stable for little Tristo.”
The male shook his head slowly and said, “This planet looks very barbaric to me.” Then he pointed to the lights from the cities of Earth and said, “Look at all those lights down there. They could all be Veluzian outposts (the Veluzians were enemies of the Schalinklings. They were from the planet Veluzia, across from Schalinka). They could be waiting down there to intercept Tristo and take us by surprise. Remember what happened when they sent that huge meteor to Earth that killed the very old Earth creatures called dinosaurs, millions of eons ago? They could have built a civilization since then and established a society.”
The female, Aurora, looked over and said, “Fazebo, how could’ve the Veluzians built a society on Earth? Their ships couldn’t travel that far at that time.”
Fazebo looked over at Aurora, “You know, Aurora, you’re probably the strongest Schalinkling that ever lived.”
Aurora turned her head in surprise, “Why do you say that, Fazebo?”
Fazebo said, “Well, just the fact that you’re willing to use your child for an experiment to explore a planet that has been fascinated by the United Nations of Planets for so many years, and you’re OK with not seeing your son for 17 years. I just can’t imagine the same reaction from another Schalinkling to let their son go like that.”
Aurora looked down at her son in her arms, “Yeah, I know I’ll miss him; but I know it’s for a good purpose.”
Just then, a greenish-yellow Schalinkling in a gray space suit approached the two. “The energizer pod is almost ready. We are ready to send little Tristo to Earth in tee minus five minutes.”
Fazebo looked over, “Thank you, Dr. Alzbund. We’ll be at the platform as soon as possible.”
Dr. Alzbund was the doctor and professor on the ship. He took care of more medical cases than any other doctor in the galaxy. There was something else special about Dr. Alzbund. He was the shortest Schalinkling on the ship. Most Schalinklings on the ship were more or around six feet tall, while Dr. Alzbund was around five feet tall. But no matter how tall he was, he was still praised for his work.
Fazebo said, “Aurora, it’s time.”
Aurora looked down at her baby. A tear slowly came down her face as she held her head down by little Tristo. They walked out of the cockpit and onto the platform of the ship. Below were hundreds of Schalinklings of all shapes and sizes (the ship was very big and long).
Fazebo silenced the crowd and spoke, “Fellow Schalinklings, today is a historic day for us, and for the United Nations of Planets. We are about to send our baby Schalinkling, Tristo, down to the planet Earth; a planet that has been left unexplored for years in this part of the Milky Way galaxy.”
There was a loud cheer all throughout the ship. Fazebo put his hands up and silenced the crowd again.
“Now, in order to make sure he doesn’t stand out, in case Veluzians are down there, we will disguise him as a half-Veluzian. Then, we will disguise him as the native species that are on Earth. We will then erase his memory of him when he was sent to Earth. Then when he returns, he will tell us everything about life on Earth.”
Aurora looked over and gasped. “I don’t remember that in the agreement!”
Fazebo looked over, “Aurora, it’s the only way he doesn’t tell anyone we’re here. You don’t want him to grow up and spill the beans to the Veluzians and let it be the end of us, do you?”
Aurora shook her head. She said, “But then I’ll have to explain everything to Tristo when he’s older! Don’t you think he’ll be hurt by that?”
Fazebo grabbed Aurora by the shoulders, “Aurora, we have to! It’s the only way to keep us safe.”
Aurora looked down again at little Tristo. This time, a bigger tear rolled down her face. It seemed that Aurora could handle not seeing her son for 17 years, but explaining everything to him about his early years like that just seemed … implausible to her.
Dr. Alzbund peeked his head out of his laboratory. He said in a whispering voice, “Fazebo, we’re on a tight schedule. We have to send Tristo to Earth in tee minus two minutes.”
Fazebo looked over, “We’ll be in, Doctor.”
Fazebo looked at the crowd of Schalinklings once more. He said, “In two minutes, our historic mission will begin!”
With that, Fazebo and Aurora walked across the ship’s bridge into Dr. Alzbund’s laboratory. As they did, applause, cheers, whistles, and yells, filled the ship.
Aurora and Fazebo walked into Dr. Alzbund’s laboratory, a small laboratory, but quaint. Dr. Alzbund closed the door behind Fazebo.
“Okay,” he said, “we have to hurry this up, because we don’t have much time.”
He ran over to a teleportation-like device. He then said, “Aurora, lay your son over here.”
She said, “Okay.”
As she walked over to Dr. Alzbund, who was going to set Tristo in the Transformation Platform, which was the name of the teleportation-like device, she rubbed her cheek against Tristo one more time. She tried to talk to him under her tears, “I’ll miss you, Tristo.”
She gave Tristo to Dr. Alzbund and he set him down on the Platform. “Alright,” he said, “let’s begin Step 1, erasing the memory.”
At the sound of those words, Aurora cringed in her mind. Her son wouldn’t have a clue about his real family. Dr. Alzbund started the memory erasing process, called the Dememorizer. There were a few moments of electricity (the electricity didn’t affect Tristo because the Schalinklings were able to control the temperature of electricity, no matter how high it’s normal temperature was).
After the electricity was done, there was silence. Aurora decided to break the silence by going up to Tristo and talking to him. She said, “Tristo, are you OK? It’s me, your mother.”
At the sound of that, Tristo just stared blankly at Aurora. Then he let out a big cry. At the sound of this, Aurora’s heart broke in two. She had now mentally lost her son for the next 17 years! She said, “I can’t believe it! My son is… gone!”
Aurora couldn’t stand watching this happen to her son, so she just got up and left.
“Step one complete,” said Dr. Alzbund. So Tristo was turned into a human baby and sent to Earth.
But what Fazebo and Aurora didn’t know was that their worlds would cross with Tristo’s for an adventure of a lifetime!
